Box Score MANCHESTER, N.H. – Sophomore first-baseman Scott De Jong (North Haledon, N.J.) hit a pair of two-run home runs and junior left-hander Jack Fowler (Shrewsbury, N.J.) went the distance on a six-hit shutout to lead the No. 6 seed Felician College baseball team to a 5-0 victory over Franklin Pierce University in an elimination game of the 2014 NCAA Division II East Regional Tournament, hosted by Southern New Hampshire University on Friday morning at Penmen Field. Franklin Pierce (35-18), the No. 2 seed and the 2013 regional champion, received votes in the most recent national Division II writers' poll.
Both the Ravens and Golden Falcons had lost their first-round games on Thursday. FPU was eliminated from the tournament, while Felician (30-19) advances to face No. 4 seed St. Thomas Aquinas College on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Manchester. St. Thomas Aquinas stayed alive by knocking off top-seeded Southern New Hampshire later on Friday. More details are available at the tournament homepage at http://www.snhupenmen.com/sports/bsb/2013-14/NCAA/NCAAGameday.
Fowler and Raven senior righty Joe Flynn (Plymouth, Mass.) matched zeroes for five frames in the briskly-played affair. FPU stranded a runner in scoring position in the first and third innings, and Fowler induced a flyout with runners on first and third to escape the sixth.
Felician was the designated home team by tournament rules, and Golden Falcon leadoff man Gabriel Fellin (Temple, Pa.) started the home half of the sixth with an infield single. Aaron Brill (West Palm Beach, Fla.) laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Flynn made an errant throw. With the ball rolling down the right field foul line, Fellin came all the way around to score and Brill ended up at third base. De Jong followed with a homer to straightaway center field for a 3-0 Felician lead.
In the eighth, Brill reached on another Flynn error, and the Ravens turned to junior Doug Willey (Shelburne, N.H.) in relief. De Jong sent Willey's first offering well over the fence in left to increase the edge to 5-0.
Fowler retired the first two hitters in the top of the ninth, and had set down nine consecutive batters at that point. But with his pitch count nearing the century mark, he yielded singles to the next three hitters to load the bases. The Ravens sent up a pinch-hitter, and Fowler ran the count full before recording his seventh strikeout of the day. It was the first complete game of his collegiate career. He threw 103 pitches, 79 for strikes.
Felician won its 30th game for the first time in program history, and Fowler (10-2) became the first Golden Falcon hurler to ever pick up 10 wins in a season. He also set the Felician record for single-season innings with 85 2/3. Fellin and Brennan Price (Middlesex, N.J.) joined De Jong with two hits apiece for the Golden Falcons. FPU's Calvin Graves (Boston, Mass.) was 2 for 4.
